By Leah Segedie
After losing over 100 lbs, I had to figure out a way to make my weight maintenance successful over the long run. Lucky for me, I had gradually learned how to be healthier and most of it was like second nature. Over the years, I learned some very basic tricks to keeping myself, and my weight steady and here they are:
1. Eating breakfast
I never really ate breakfast before I started losing weight. I was always a coffee and possibly some pastry at a coffee shop kinda girl. (By the way, if you want your jaw to drop to the ground, just take a look at the calories in some of those pastries. My favorite had over 800 calories, which was helping me gain weight, not lose it.) When I started getting serious about my health, I started making breakfast for myself every morning. I noticed right away that I was more alert in the morning, but that I would also get hungrier at about 10am. So I would eat another healthy snack then and the rest of my day started out right because I was getting my body used to being fueled the right way. Today, I know that eating breakfast and fueling my body was helping me lose weight because it helped jumpstart my metabolism and gave me energy to be more active. I used to think that eating always caused weight gain, not true if done right.
2. Relying on whole grain instead of refined white flour
I love white bread and pasta. I’m not going to lie about that. It was about 60%the majority of what I used to eat every day when I was a bigger girl. But the problem was I was eating nothing but refined white flour, which turns into sugar when it’s digested in your body right away and leaves you hungrier faster. When I switched to whole grains, I felt more satisfied and ate less food, so that means I wasn’t as hungry all the time. I also cut down on the amount of carbohydrates I ate every day, but made sure that when I did eat them, they were all whole grain.. I then decided to switch to whole grain. Whole grain helps slow down digestion and provides longer-lasting energy, so it was easier for me stick to my healthy diet while still enjoying the foods I love.
3. Getting regular exercise as part of my weekly routine
It’s possible to lose weight without exercise, but it’s very hard and then maintenance is impossible. I lost weight by watching my nutrition and implementing lots of exercise. It’s a double whammy and my body thanked me for it. When exercise is part of your daily routine, your body is better conditioned, you feel better, and you are burning the calories you take in. All of that is needed to maintain weight and stay healthy over a lifetime.
4. Studying food labels
Making it a habit to always read the labels of the food I was about to consume BEFORE I ate them saved me in the long run. There were so many foods that I thought were “healthy” until I read the back of the labels. What usually happened is they had lots of calories and fat in them., but that was hidden in serving sizes. So I would normally eat the entire package, but the package was actually 2-3 servings, so I was consuming 2-3 times the calories I thought I was.
5. Learning how to eat out at restaurants
Learning how to deal with life as it came at me was paramount and eating out was part of that. It’s not practical to bring your food with you to a restaurant as everyone else is dining. And besides, who has the time for that anyways? So learning some tips and tricks to eating in restaurants was helpful to keep me living a normal life. I always ordered seltzer water with lime, skipped the bread or chips, got a lean protein and ate a portion about the size of my palm, and loaded up on vegetables. If it was a breakfast restaurant, I always asked them to substitute hash browns with tomatoes and cottage cheese. For Chinese, I would get beef with broccoli or a vegetable stir-fry and brown rice. For Mexican, I skipped the chips, and ventured into more of their soups. There are some great books you can purchase that will give you some additional tips on this. I have loads of them and they were very helpful.
The overall trick to weight maintenance is keeping up with all your healthy food choices, eating breakfast, getting plenty of water, sleep and exercise. You don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to commit to a healthier lifestyle to make it work for you. And figure out what works for you. Don’t feel like you need to follow one plan over another exactly. Everyone is different and has different challenges. But I wish everyone good luck this year maintaining their weight and staying healthy!
Leah Segedie is a fitness matriarch in the social media realm who helps “digital moms” learn and sustain healthy living practices to combat obesity. She has lost over 170 lbs. over two pregnancies and is an inspiration to women all over the internet with her communities Bookieboo.com and Mamavation.com
